Cut Corners

Recorded from the mid-19th century, with an early citation in The Oxford Magazine and Church Advocate in 1863. The clearest theory points to literally cutting a corner while travelling, taking a diagonal shortcut across a square or junction instead of following the proper right-angled path, saving distance at the cost of doing it "properly." A competing theory traces it through the older term "cater-corner" (diagonally across), which drifted through "catty- corner" and "kitty-corner" before possibly influencing "cut corner." Both theories point to the same diagonal-shortcut image, without settling which came first.